God's building a case against the nation

There where seven charges against the nation mentioned by Hosea that caused a spiritual collapse in the nation of Israel, these are equally relevant to church society today, they are as follows:

1. lack of knowledge (4:6), this sent Israel on a downward spiral.  If you around the modern Christian long enough you will hear misquoted scripture, misapplied scripture, and total ignorance of the word.  How can we say we Love and wish to follow Him, when we don't know Him through His word.
2. Pride (5:5), always has been an issue in mankind, and is the root of many of our problems.  We have such a pride issue today in modern church.  We feel we are the center of the universe, thus removing God from His center point.
3. Instability (6:4), forget God and we forget our place and puts us on shaky ground.  We build a relationship with God mostly at face value and when we do we find ourselves instable.
4. Worldiness (7:8), God is absent from their lives thus they seek the world for fulfillment.  Today you cannot tell much difference between the believers life morally and ethically and the non-believers.  We have bent our ways towards the worlds ways.
5. Corruption (9:9), the nation was rotting from the inside out.  We find ourselves becoming more and more rotten from the inside out, corruption comes from within.
6. Backsliding (11:7), turned their backs against God.  When things don't go the way we think they should or they way we want it to, we are quick to turn against God.
7. Idolatry (13:2), anything that takes the place of God in our lives is idolatry.  We are far too often putting things like work, money, fame, family, significant others, and etc. in front of God when we do it is nothing short of idolatry.

These things are what we are confronted with still today in the spiral of sin of society, and quite frankly within our own churches.  We are warned ahead of time that people are not going to want to hear it, in fact they will want it sugar coated and to make us feel good even though we are on a path of self destruction:

 

3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.   4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.   5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (The Holy Bible  : New International Version (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984), 2 Ti 4:3-5.)

We have got to keep our head in the game and be bold like Hosea in telling the truth, they may not want to hear it but it is for their own good, and for my own good.

Help me God

^1 Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry for help come to you (Psalm 102:1)

 ^17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. (Psalm 102:17)

When you read the psalmist’s initial words in Psalm 102  you get a sense of a desperate need.  It was what I would call an “SOS” prayer, “God I really need help”.  His cry for help is a desperate plea for assistance.  His hearts cry is for God to help him in his greatest time of need.  You get a sense of the struggle that he is dealing with.  Maybe questions and doubts arising because the prayer hasn’t been answered when and where he wanted it to.

Does this sound familiar.  I’m sure it does to a lot of us.  We get stressed, we get worried and we find ourselves like this psalmist wanting help and desperately begging and pleading with God to answer.  Our problem is we want it on our timing, we want it NOW.  We want quick action.  We want things to go away.  We want our prayers answered immediately.  Of course we do, why wouldn’t we?

As you have probably figured out by now, it doesn’t work that way.  Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes God does answer them almost immediately.  Sometimes that very minute, sometimes the next day, or even the next week.  But what about when He doesn’t.

Here is what you and I need to know, verse 17.

He will respond.  Enough said.  He will respond to the prayer, He will not look past our plea.  Do you believe that?  It is a hard one to swallow.  He will respond, just not right away always.  He will respond, when you are ready and He is ready.  He will respond when He is ready to make it fit into His great big Plan for life.  God is painting a much bigger picture than you and I can ever imagine.  Hold on dear child of His, He may not answer today, but keep in mind “He will respond”.

God grant us patience and assurance to know you will respond… Chris.

When you feel you've lost your footing

 

^18 When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your love, O Lord, supported me. ^19 When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. ^22 But the Lord has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge (Psalm 94:18-19, 22)

 

Tell me if this sounds familiar: you feel like you are slipping deeper and deeper, like you are losing your foothold on life.  Yeah, we have probably all been there.  First of all, breathe.  This is not the end.  How do you, how do I make it when we feel like we have lost our footing and are falling.

 

We make it with faith.  Faith in believing in One who is greater than I.  Faith in the One who called all things into existence, and faith in the One who loves you and I more than we will ever understand.  When I feel like I’m slipping it is His love that supports me, His love that keeps me going.

 

Anxiety.  That is another big ugly word and emotion we have to deal with.  The psalmist tells us how to deal with that as well, He says that God’s consolation brings joy to our soul.  What is consolation?  Consolation is the Hebrew word: תַּנְחוּמִים [tanchuwm, tanchum, tanchuwmah /tan·khoom / this basically means to comfort.  To put us at ease.  To put our minds at ease.  Another part of faith.  When we have faith, it is that faith that puts us at comfort when the anxiety of the world comes crashing in around us.  Through that comfort it brings joy to our soul.  It’s like getting a hug from a parent, there is just a comfort in that hug that cannot be described.  So it is with your Creator.

The psalmist adds that the Lord has become His fortress, so the question is this:  Has the Lord become your fortress.  Is He your strength?  Is He the one where you find your refuge (shelter)?  He wants to be, will you just let Him.

I really needed this today, well I guess probably everyday, God thank you for being my refuge, my comfort, my support, especially when Anxiety is high within me….

Have a great day, Chris

Lord I want to be like You

thought for the day:

^11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart,

that I may fear your name. (Psalm 86:11)

 

What does this verse say to you / me? Several things, observe:

·         “Teach me your ways”, remain teachable.  I can never get to a point in life where I think I know enough about God and/or His Word.  It is just not possible.  The Christians who have a close relationship with Him are the ones who are willing to constantly learn.

·         “I will walk in your truth”.  Walking in truth is referring to the way we live our lives.  You can’t walk in truth, if you are not willing to be taught His ways.  The two are intertwined together.

·         “Give me an undivided heart”. The word undivided in this verse means “to join”.  When we are asking God for an undivided heart we are asking Him to “Join” our heart with His Heart.  We are asking Him to get into the innermost part of our being and help us to see people the way He does, to Love them like He does, and to treat them like He does.

·         “Fear His name”.  This does not mean that we literally tremble and are scared of God, It is referring to having honor and reverence for the great “I AM”.  All of the previous mentioned in this verse build up to this pivotal point:  we learn His ways, we walk in His truth, we have His heart, then we are able to honor and reverence His name.

Have a great day!  Chris

unilateral forgiveness

^13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Col. 3:13, NIV)

 

^32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32, NIV)

 

I have been in the process of working through forgiving someone from a very personal wrong that was done to me.  It has been a long painstaking process.  It has caused me to have to bring up memories that are neither pleasant or fun to have to recall.  The bigger difficulty of the situation is that the person who wronged me is dead and gone, so the question goes how do I confront and deal with someone who has wronged me in the past now that they are gone.  How do I get closure, and how do I get past it.  Forgiveness.

Forgiveness means to release from an obligation, or to release from a wrong that was incurred.  Forgiveness is not easy to give and sometimes is not easy to receive.  When you forgive you are not approving the action, you are not repressing the action, but you are releasing someone them and yourself from the offense that was done.  It is in essence hitting the delete button.

 So I am working on what is known as “unilateral forgiveness”.  Unilateral forgiveness is forgiving someone who has either not offered an apology for the wrong doing or is unable to offer the apology (such as in death or no point of contact). 

 When Jesus was on the cross He offered humanity unilateral forgiveness: 

^4 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34, NIV).

 We didn’t ask for it, He just gave it, out of His own freewill.

 When you and I offer forgiveness to someone who has neither offered the apology or can give it, we are not only letting them go from it, but we are also letting ourselves go from having to carry the anger, bitterness, and sadness from the wrong that occurred.  When someone wrongs us like the way I was, the cut runs deep and it seems like I just can’t forgive them or that they don’t deserve it.  The pain will probably always be there, however I allow the pain to worsen when I still allow them to control me.  I am in the process of allowing myself to release this person from the debt I feel they owe me, because there is no way I will ever get the apology or the justice I feel I deserve.

 So I find myself asking this question, “what do I do now?”  I have a choice in front of me I can choose to continue to allow them to control me even though they are dead, or I can release them and essence release myself so that I may move on.  I choose life, I choose to move on.  It is not going to be easy, but I must continue to move and grow.  With God’s help I know I can, because He has a plan.

Choices?

 



Israel had it all.  God had provided everything they needed.  He provided them the best of the best.  God provided everything they needed to perfection to produce good fruit for Him.  He provided so much for them, and yet He asks in Isaiah 5:4

^“4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?”

God laid it all out there for them, and the sad thing was they acted with disobedience.  God then carefully lays out His case in Isaiah 5:8-23 as to why He would bring destruction upon them.

Isaiah’s response was totally different.  Isaiah was at a trying time in his life and ministry, the king had died and they were unsure times (6:1).  God enables him to see God for all of His glory.  Isaiah recognizes his own wickedness: 

^5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5)

 

Isaiah is given the same opportunity and chance as Israel to serve the Lord.  His response is not disobedience, but rather strict obedience:

 ^8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).

 

The same holds true today.  God gives us ample opportunity to serve Him, He provides everything we need all we have to do is respond as Isaiah did, or respond as the disciples did when Jesus said, “Follow Me”.

 

^19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” ^20 At once they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:19)

 

God loves you and I so much that He leaves the choosing to us.  You can choose to now follow (as Israel did) or you can choose to follow (as Isaiah and disciples did), God will not force you to follow Him or Serve Him.  It's totally up to you to decides, so what is it going to be?

 

Chris

if you don't ask you will never know

^10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant. (9:10)

 

^32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. (9:32)

 

These were amazing times but also trying times for the disciples.  In the beginning of chapter 9 you have the transfiguration of Jesus, where Peter, James, and John got to see Jesus in His glorified form chatting it up with Moses and Elijah.  They where amazed, as you can imagine, by this, but as they where leaving Jesus told them not to discuss it until He rose from the dead.  That is where chapter 9 verse 10 falls in.  They absolutely kept it to themselves, but they also had no idea as to what Jesus was referring to.  Fast forward a little bit in chapter 9, Jesus heals a possessed boy that the other disciples could not, they then pass through Galilee as quietly as possible because He wanted some time to teach His disciples.  Then comes this part of the narrative:

 

^31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” ^32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.  (9:31-32)

 

He flat out tells them what is going to happen, and they fail the test.  So you ask “what was the test”…… the test was would they ask Him about what they did not understand.  They failed, because they where “afraid”.  Afraid?  Yes, afraid.  We think: how in the world could they be afraid.

 

We are always afraid to ask questions.  We won’t raise our hands in class to ask questions because we are afraid.  We won’t ask our parents questions because we are afraid.  We won’t ask our friends questions because we are afraid.  Why are we so afraid.  We are afraid because we don’t know all the answers and we are too prideful to admit it.  We are afraid because we don’t want to ask and look like an idiot.  We are afraid because of appearance, ignorance, and shyness.  And we certainly can’t let Jesus know that we don’t know everything, we should never question Him about anything… oh the horror if we did…. Somewhere along the line of Christianity we bought into the lie that we shouldn’t question any questions.  Just sit there, smile, and act like everything is ok and you understand everything.

 

Here is the thing.  Jesus knows already that you don’t know, so just admit to Him you don’t and allow Him to teach you.  That is what He wanted the disciples to do, and that is what He is wanting you and I to do today.  If you don’t understand it…. Ask.   Ask Him, ask a mentor, ask your pastor, ask your teacher, ask a trusted friend, just please ask someone. 

 

Don’t be afraid….. ask.